Although it is widely reported that business insiders account for over 65% of all information theft and leaks, company and government investigators are sometimes quick at pointing fingers to outside entities without first looking at the facts of the breach and leaks.

In the case of the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, the government pointed its fingers to North Korea very quickly and then suggestions were made that the system account was stolen to access the information. Well, if it was determined that a legitimate account was used to access the system, it could also mean that the account owner may have accessed the data for malicious purposes given the high probability of insiders being involved in similar cases.

Over the weeks that followed the Sony hack, independent investigators analyzed the leaked information from HR files and found out that an ex-employee who was laid off recently had deep access to the leaked information. Although the investigation continues, we should not be surprised to find out that an employee whether working alone or with other corrupt insiders and outsiders had something to do with the hack. That said, the US government continues to accuse North Korea with fresh sanctions.

Knowing about the high probability of insider involvement in data theft and leak cases, companies should have comprehensive mentoring processes to detect and stop suspicious activities and file uploads. Multi-layer security is often recommended to compensate for failed security controls and ensure continuity of data protection at all times.

You can learn more about corrupt insiders in this article.

Until next time, be identity safe,

Henry Bagdasarian
Identity-Theft- Awareness.com

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